The people were hidden in the hold of the car and suffocated, 34 survivors were taken to a hospital. The four suspected smugglers have been arrested by the police.

In Bulgaria, according to the Ministry of the Interior, 18 bodies of migrants from Afghanistan have been found in a truck. Among the fatalities was also a child, said the head of the Bulgarian investigative authority, Borislav Sarafov, on Friday in front of journalists. The people were suffocated.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, wood was transported in the truck, which was found near the village of Lokorsko near Sofia. The migrants were hidden in compartments of the hold. Meanwhile, police arrested four people, one of whom had already been convicted of human trafficking. Bulgaria is on the route by which many migrants from the Middle East and Afghanistan try to reach the EU.

Another 34 migrants, including five children, have been hospitalized in Sofia, Sarafov said. Some are therefore in a critical but stable condition. "There was not enough oxygen for the people trapped in the truck. They froze, were wet and hadn't eaten for several days." The people crossed the border illegally from Turkey and hid in forests for two days before being taken into the truck near the town of Yambol in southeastern Bulgaria.

Many migrants arriving in Bulgaria try to get to richer countries in Western Europe. To this end, they place themselves in the hands of professionally organised smuggling gangs. The latest case is reminiscent of the discovery of 71 migrants who were discovered dead in a truck on an Austrian motorway in 2015.